Crippling conditions to be eased by £500k funding boost

The most effective treatments for crippling conditions like back pain, tennis elbow, and knee osteoarthritis will be explored with an innovative £500,000 project.

Researchers from Essex will collaborate with academics from around the world on the inaugural Private Physiotherapy Education Foundation Silver Jubilee Award.

The School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences (SRES) will team up with experts from Queen Mary University of London, Scotland’s Robert Gordon University, and Australia’s University of Canberra, as well as Pure Sports Medicine in London.

Best practice

The three-year project will integrate research, education, and innovation to define and disseminate best practice for common musculoskeletal conditions.

A patient and clinician steering group will set the priorities.

Ankle sprain, adolescent hip pain, rotator cuff-related shoulder pain, back pain with sciatica, tennis elbow, and osteoarthritis after a knee injury are likely to be explored.

The winning research proposal, titled Data-to-Practice: Defining and Translating Best Physiotherapy Practice for Common Musculoskeletal Conditions will start imminently.

Substantial improvements

Dr Bradley Neal, Essex lecturer in Physiotherapy and co-applicant, said: “This award was extremely competitive, and our success reflects both the ground-breaking nature of our mixed methods approach and the strength of our inter-institutional team.

“I am very excited to build on my prior post-doctoral work and bring substantial improvements to the management of common musculoskeletal conditions.

“I am pleased that the Private Physiotherapy Education Foundation saw the value not just in the research outputs that will come from this award, but also the huge potential for downstream impact linked to patient and clinician education.”

Dylan Morrissey, Professor of Sports and Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy at Queen Mary University of London, and primary investigator for the project added: “This research will combine evidence reviews with interviews of world experts and patients.

“The evidence reviews will examine research papers to identify what treatments work. The interviews will add valuable information on how the treatments should be delivered.”

Clear guidance 

The work has been welcomed by Dr Ruth Lowry research director in SRES.

Dr Lowry said: “We are very excited to see that Dr Neal and colleagues have been awarded this prestigious funding.

“This translational research will provide clinicians with clear guidance on the latest and best quality evidence regarding common musculoskeletal conditions and effective treatment.

“The work builds upon the teams existing expertise in translating research into useable advice for clinicians and the public.”